The purpose of this article is to provide a critique of the main concepts of qualitative and quantitative methodologies for conducting research. It is written expressly for the novice researcher in an attempt to clarify the major misconceptions and misunderstandings concerning the qualitative-quantitative research polarities. This article will not…

Survey IDs are short strings of unique characters assigned to each recipient in a sample population. Extension research can benefit from the improved organization of survey implementation and data collection, better researcher-respondent communication, and reduced survey material costs supported through the use of survey IDs. This article outlines…

Up to the publication of the results of Germany's first participation in the PISA study in 2001, there had been no national educational standards in Germany's 16 federal states. In the aftermath of the discussions about the disappointing outcomes, Germany's federal states decided to develop national standards, yet focusing on "core…

The questionnaires' origin (sources from which elements of the questionnaire are derived) and initial development (process of making a questionnaire from elements) should be assessed before their measurement properties. There is no Critical Appraisal Tool (CAT) that comprehensively assesses the origin and initial development of questionnaires…

The article is a reflection on the use of an oral diary as a qualitative research tool, the role that it played during fieldwork and the methodological issues that emerged. It draws on a small-scale empirical study into primary school teachers' use of group discussion, during which oral diaries were used to explore and document teacher reflective…

Including the inner perspectives of people who have intellectual disability can pose methodological challenges to qualitative researchers. This article explains how the Listening Guide was applied as an additional step in the analysis during a study which used hermeneutic interviews with people with intellectual disability as the sole method of…

A geographic information system (GIS) can be a valuable research tool, helping scientists understand location and bridge the gaps between subjects in interdisciplinary research (IDR), which has been promoted for its real-world solutions. However, a GIS can be difficult to use and may require understanding of a number of concepts as well as tools…

The nature of academic librarianship is changing as librarians move away from the curation of material and into research support roles. Although this creates new opportunities it can be difficult for staff to learn the skills needed. The Office of Scholarly Communication at Cambridge University seeks to address this issue with the Research Support…

Information Retrieval (IR) is one of the most evolving research fields and has drawn extensive attention in recent years. Because of its empirical nature, the advance of the IR field is closely related to the development of various toolkits. While the traditional IR toolkit mainly provides a platform to evaluate the effectiveness of retrieval…

The purpose of the study was to identify and analyse high school students' metaphorical perceptions of biology and biology teacher concepts. The sample comprised all the 515 students studying in the Etimesgut district in Ankara in the spring semester of the 2015/2016 academic year. The data were gathered through a form which included the phrases…

The research guide is a common tool librarians use to communicate with and instruct their audiences. Despite their prevalence and value to users, research guides remain underused. There are many examples of efforts encouraging guide use, but few studies have measured the effectiveness of that promotion. Academic Outreach librarians at Virginia…

Purpose: The aim of this study was to develop the Language Exposure Assessment Tool (LEAT) and to examine its cross-linguistic validity, reliability, and utility. The LEAT is a computerized interview-style assessment that requests parents to estimate language exposure. The LEAT yields an automatic calculation of relative language exposure and…

Extension professionals employ many techniques and tools to obtain feedback, input, information, and data from stakeholders, research participants, and program learners. An information-gathering tool called Ketso is described in this article. This tool and its associated techniques can be used in all phases of program development, implementation,…

Elevating research and supporting scholarship are both a responsibility and core value of all family and consumer sciences (FCS) professionals. This responsibility may involve: (1) Introducing the research process under graduate students; (2) Guiding the research of graduate students; (3) Mentoring a junior faculty member to establish a research…

The aim of this paper is to propose a research tool in the field of education--the "metaphorical collage." This tool facilitates the understanding of concepts and processes in education through the analysis of metaphors in collage works that include pictorial images and verbal images. We believe the "metaphorical collage" to be…